Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-12
Hits Outside the Diamond.

Van Haltren, the new pitcher of the Chi cagos, gets $500 month.
 Munyan last night received S1O0 advance
 money, and will go to the Clevelands after
 all.
 Cunning and Meehan, one of the batteries
 of the Bridgeports, have signed with the
 Flushing, l.. l., team.
 Joe Brown is suffering from an attack of
 malaria,yet he played his first game with the
 Jersey Citys on Friday.
 Brill, formerly of the New Ravens, has signed with the Wilkesbarres. He pitched against the Bradfords on Friday. The Danbury Democrat says that if the other three clubs in the league drop out Dan- bury will be sure of winning the pennant. Where is Dawson, formerly pitcher of the New Ravens? He said before he left that he had an offer to go into the Northwestern league. That is where Lovett has gone. Some of the papers here stated that Fred Goldsmith, the pitcher, had been made an offer by Manager Kelley, to join the New Ravens. This is news to Manager Kelly as he has made no such offer.
 The Haverhill club, which is about to dis
 band, has the poorest fielding average in the country. Not man has an average of 300
 except Doe, and his is .915, the smallest of
 any first baseman playing ball.
 The grocers in Congress avenue have or
 ganized ball nine and would like to hear
 from the State street or the Grand avenue
 hines or any other business house nine. Ad-
 dress H. Speh, 255 Congress avenue.
 Thirty days ago the Chicago papers were
 speaking in very disrespectfu1 terms of An
 son. To-day they are doing nothing but be-
 slowing on him all the praises they possibly
 can, as he has advanced the team from sev-
 enth to second place.
 The Boston Blues are to be plotted out and after July il Boston will cease to have New
 England league team. The team was not supported as it should have been and there- fore it will be transferred to Haverhill and the Haverhill and Lawrence teams will dis
 band. This will leave six clubs in the New England league.
 It looks as if Beecher of Hartford, whom Pittsburg secured, is fast enough for league company. Indianapolis, Cleveland, the Athletics and Philadelphia were after him,
 but wouldn't pay the price for him, and Pittsburg got the man. He has clean bat ting average with base hits on balls of .517 with total of .689 and with "phantoms" of .550.
 J. c. Kennedy in the Sporting Times says: 'Daring base running is the best feature of a game of base ball. Good batting, clever
 fielding and skillful pitching all evoke ap-
 plause, but they cannot be compared to
 the work of daring player who takes every cuauc0, TuuS WlIu HI pOSsIDlo speed ana
 dives headtoremost for 6 base in order to
 avoid being touched" The New Haven pub
 lie want to see base running and they never
 fail to applaud work of that character. Greenig, the pitcher whom Manager Don nelly engaged for the Danburys, says he is going to sue the Danbury association for salary. He claims that he was hired by tele-
 graph and when he pitched couple of games they paid him $25. The way he was
 hired, he claims, entities him to at least a
 months salary. They hired him for $125 per month. He was with the team two or three weeks before he got his release. It is not an extravagant assertion to say that Van Haltren is the master of more curves and drops than anyo ther pitcher play ing before the public. His work is simply astonishing, bewildering. The peculiar con- yard of it's flight. Balls travelling on dead line with the center of the plate suddenly veer to one side and describe all manner of acute curves. With the possible exception of Mark Baldwin, whose effectiveness lies in
 his speed, every pitch erin the league. makes some effort to bafle batsmen with curves. These curves, however. .are straight balls when compared to the skinny stick twisters Van Haltren fires over the plate. To person who has not seen the Californian's work it may appear as hyperbolic to say that the youngster has command of curve so power ful that it can describe half the circumfer- ence of 36-inch circle when within two feet of the plate. Besides these phenomenal curves, Van Haltren pitches drop ball ut terly unlike anything ever exhibited by any league pitcher, either alive, retired or dead. After travelling the distance between the box and the plate with speed enough to make the batsman's hair stand on end, the drop ball suddenly falls to the ground like chunk of lead, where it spins like billiard ball heavily charged with English" Van Haltren has
 many other balls entirely foreign to batsmen
 of the league. He has Larry Corcoran's
 snake curves in more exaggerated form, and
 the deadly down shoots of Clarkson.